In this age of celebrity, this time of social media influencers and content creators, meeting your heroes and your faves is a rite of passage. With the rise of conventions and fan meetups, this is even easier to accomplish. But what if your "fave" isn't all that they seem to be? Such is the case in Caryn Waechter's Deadcon, part haunted hotel, part social commentary, but all around underwhelming.
YouTuber AKAshley is attending the latest ViewCon, the hotspot for all content creators and their fans. After a booking snafu, she winds up with room 2210A, which has a history of odd occurrences involving technology, dating back to the 1980s. Can Ashley make it through the weekend in one piece? Or will the mysterious LinkRabBIT make ViewCon one Ashley will never forget?
I am a sucker for presentation in a film. The real-time superimposition of social media posts and typing throughout the film caught my eye from the first use. Some would call it gratuitous, but I think it looks cooler than a simple over the shoulder shot looking at the character's phone. It's one thing that stands out in this film visually.
For as hyped as I was about this film, I was ultimately let down. Social commentary? Satire of the selfie age? Count me in. But Deadcon tries to be too much at once. As I mentioned before, this story is part haunted hotel room and part haunted/possessed technology, and it stops halfway on both fronts. The characters are largely unlikable, and when one unlikable character does meet their fate, it's rather underwhelming and unsatisfying.
Deadcon is a film that is not "so bad it's good," not a tongue-in-cheek satire whose charm is in its flaws. It's a film that keeps itself in the starting block and doesn't manage to get out of them for its roughly 75 minutes.
Deadcon held its World Premiere at this year's Cinepocalypse Film Fest.